Social interactions and recommendations like +1s on Google+, Facebook shares, likes, and comments, etc. are called social signals.
With the rising importance of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines now take into account various social signals to help determine a site’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social media presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, instead of aiming for short-term benefits like search ranking placement. Google’s own head of the web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to assessing social media signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to social signals over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide real value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social network in the world. Research shows that a single post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one seems to be buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google uses data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems influence search rankings more than other social media sites.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out every day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social networking site, GooglePlus naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are actively using Google+ each week. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(Social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Google and Bing include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a site has, the authority of the person sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people follow you, number and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Digg, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can indirectly influence search engine rankings. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to find ways to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze social performance in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, identify new opportunities for engagement, assess competitor activity, avert crises, and measure the impact of campaigns. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific topics, brands, products, or businesses.
As a tool for business intelligence, the ability to monitor social media channels like blogging, forums, news sites, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, Tumblr, etc., discussion boards, video/photo sharing sites, and user-generated content (UGC) is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by a cross-section of people including market researchers, digital reputation managers, marketing teams, social engagement and community staff, social marketing agencies, and professional sales reps. Typically, smaller businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a social media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different technology providers have developed tools that facilitate the active monitoring of a wide spectrum of social media channels, allowing you to track what consumers, competitors, supporters, and critics are saying about your brand or products so you can react to conversations and engage with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article listing many social media monitoring tools and technologies that are worth checking out and knowing about. For more details, go here:
(Are you measuring social signals effectively?)
This article discusses a simple, yet highly effective plugin for WordPress users for monitoring social signals and increasing your social media presence.
Introducing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social media analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help you increase your social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The user’s goal is simple … convert all reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any website owner can operate … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts with highest number of shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber or red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ websites over a period of three months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping everything “green”. From these tests, they noticed a 360% improvement in traffic for their top 10 performing sites, 410% more keywords ranked in the first page of Google and they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to the plugin developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing can result in higher search rankings, increased web traffic and more revenue!)
More info:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Below we have listed just some of the many benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Quick And Simple To Install And Set Up. Ready To Start Using In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro is quite easy to install. Just upload a zip file containing the plugin to your Plugin folder via your WordPress admin user section and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to turn all the reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals so you know which campaigns need more effort and where to optimize.
Track The Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to track and monitor social activity across leading social networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest directly from your WordPress admin area.
Social Metrics Pro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which social campaigns are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively tracks social signals from the social media sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro provides a number of great features to WP users. Below we have listed a few of these:
- Fast and simple to install and set up. Ready to use in minutes.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. Access the latest stats right on your WordPress admin bar, add socially popular content to your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click auto-update functionality. Update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Plugin works the smallest hosting configuration. Reporting is in seconds, consuming little server resources. The tool also displays the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort and filter data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by category, post type, post authors, or publishing date.
- Export Data: You can export and plot data in Excel for further analysis. Data can be exported in tab-delimited and comma-separated file formats, and imported to Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is very simple to use … just change more reds into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are some of the testimonials and comments plugin users have written about the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
”As with any cool plugin, it solves a very simple problem – how to view how well your WordPress posts are being promoted.” Adam Small, Marketing Tech Blog
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”Social Metrics is one of the recipes for Social WordPress. You can integrate it quickly and easily on your WordPress site to view your performance on social networks” Jean-Francois Arseneault, Arseneault Consultation
Useful Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a practical, step-by-step guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Plugin Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Software Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This license option allows you to install Social Metrics Pro on a single website. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Licensing – This lets you install SocialMetricsPro on unlimited domains that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost of purchasing the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The price shown above was correct when this content was published. This may not be the actual price set by the product developer when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. Social Metrics Pro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives you immediate feedback on the success of your social media marketing strategy and shows you how to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP dashboard.
Get this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to shorten your path to success with social media marketing.
For full details, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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